The Wood Shed

This is an arial view of my wood shed. My Hardy sits about 50 feet from the house

The Dolmar 7900

As far as I'm concerned this is the baddest saw on the planet.

Husqvarna 346 XP

This is by far the greatest saw ever made. The 16 inch bar could easily be a laser beam the way it slices through wood.

346XP at Rest

Here is a picture of my 346XP. I just cut up these locust rounds before I snapped this picture

Big Orange

Say hello to my little friend! (use your best Al Pacino voice) Big Orange is a Husky 455 Rancher with an 18 inch bar. This thing is bad news. It is such a powerfull saw but I am suprised how smooth it operates and how easy it is on fuel.

14 inch Poulan

I swear by the Poulan's. I know they are described by some as cheap "throw away" saws but I have had great sucess with mine. This one is six years old and still runs strong.

Fiskars Super Splitter

Throw your 6# maul away and get yourself one of these. This may be the greatest invention ever.

My stuff

This is a picture of my Hardy H2, my homemade woodshed and my woodpile for the winter of 08-09. The Hardy is in the middle of the woodpile. I use my woodpile as a windbreak and a snowfence.

Heat Exchanger Installed

This is me installing the heat exchanger. This should give you a good idea its location and approximate size. The tan thing is my forced air furnace in the basement

Heat Exhanger pt.2

This is what the heat exchanger looks like once installed. The orange lines are the 3/4 inch hot water Pex lines that carry the water between my OWB and the heat exchanger. If you lean in and squint you can see the copper tubes in the exchanger. A closeup is provided below.

Close up of the Heat Exchanger

I added this picture to show you a close up of the heat exchanger. It looks just like a radiator from a large truck. I did all this installation myself saving $1000.

Pex lines coming thru basement wall

The two lines going to the left are the feed and return for my hot water tank. The two lines to the right go between the OWB and the heat exchanger.

Tee on hot water tank feed

My Hardy H2 also heats my domestic hot water. The top line goes out to the OWB to pick up heat and the bottom line fills my hot water tank with hot water. You can see the valves I can switch to bypass this when my Hardy is not burning in the summer.

Followers

About Me

I am a family man who asked a simple question..."Why do I have to pay money to heat my house?" Well, after some research I found my answer in purchasing an Outdoor Wood Boiler (OWB). Specifically a Hardy H2. While nothing is free...I traded money for my labor...I have been heating my 3000 sq ft. home for the last five years without spending a dime in gas. I hope you find this blog helpful if you are interested in buying one of these smokers or even if you have a OWB and just want to hang out with someone who knows a little bit about your life. I hope you get a chance to stop by as our house is always warm, no matter how cold it is outside.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Ok*The word is out in my area that I am always on the look-out for free trees for firewood. You would be surprised how many people come looking for you when you are known as a wood-monger.*All the wood I burn is free to me. I refuse to pay money for any wood...this commitment was all part of my "return on investment" for purchasing the Hardy H2 and I wrote about this in an earlier post titled "The Wood Game." I sometimes have to go out and knock on doors for possible leads for trees...I sometimes ask my friends, or friends of friends for trees. And sometimes the trees fall right into my lap...or my yard...as in this case below.**I was watching TV on a recent Sunday evening when my phone rang and it was a local farmer who had just tore down two big locust trees and he asked if I wanted them. The only stipulation was I had to be at his field in 15 minutes with my "big saw" to cut off the stumps, he would load them and dump them in my yard. His field bordered a cranky neighbor who would not tolerate the downed trees being burned next to his house nor would he appreciate the buzz of a chainsaw disturbing his peace. So...I jumped from the couch, grabbed by Dolmar 7900 and drove out to his field. The picture above shows the farmer's job site and one of the big stumps I had to cut off. He held the tree with his machine while I cut off the stump and then he loaded it onto his stake truck.

**Night time was falling hard as he dumped the locust into my yard, conveniently close to my wood shed. How nice is that? I didn't have to bust my back at all for this!

*Here is what my free firewood score looked like. Hey, just think...I can run my saws in the comfort of my own yard! All I have to do is cut these logs into rounds and split them up. Locust is a blast to split!*Finally, I pulled out my Fiskars Super Splitter and quickly sliced the locust rounds into beautiful firewood. I think I will save this wood to burn for next season. It was a score and I can't wait to stack it.

*I don't think just being known as someone who will take free wood is good enough to fill up your woodshed. You have to have a strong reputation as being responsive and efficient. Had I not been able to immediately load up and jump on this score...and have a saw big enough to handle these stumps...the farmer would have never called me. I know he was pleased with my service and I can expect more calls from him in the future. Even us wood-mongers have reputations. Now, I think I will just lay around until my phone rings again.*OWB